In October 2007 the company Easy Being Green went bankrupt after exploiting a loophole in government legislation that allowed them to hand out energy efficient light bulbs and in turn claim carbon credits on their usage. In 2006 alone, EBG had generated and sold over 3 million NSW Greenhouse Abatement Certificates (proof of carbon credits) at an average price of $14.50 each. When it was revealed most of the light bulbs they were handing out were not being installed the company’s business plan imploded and all staff were made redundant. With companies exploiting environmental concerns to make profit the public is losing faith in the government, and even in itself to bring about change.

Today we look at the 60’s and remember it as a time that nurtured the values and ideals of free thinking, radicalism and activism in reaction to unpopular government agendas. I only hope that in 2050 we don’t look back in regret. . . read more

Words matter more than one would think. In the Bush era, certain words have simply been sidelined. Sovereignty, for instance. If, in principle, you can kidnap anyone, anywhere, and transport that person into a ghost existence anywhere else, then national sovereignty essentially no longer has significance. This is one meaning of "globalization" in the twenty-first century. On Planet Bush, only one nation remains "sovereign," and that's the United States of America.

Despite their repeated, thoroughly worn denials about torture, the top officials of this Administration remade themselves, in the wake of the attacks of 9/11, as a Torture, Inc. And their actions since then have gone along way toward turning us, by association and tacit acquiescence, into a nation of torturers, willing to accept, in case after case, that a "war"against "terror" supposed to last for generations justifies just about any act imaginable, including the continued mistreatment and incarceration of people who remain somehow guilty even, in certain cases, after being proven innocent. . . read more

I kept thinking "Oh, I can't wait for all these fundamentalist preachers to come out because they're going to be so embarrassed with this huge example of the worst side of religion." And then the opposite thing happened. Our president started using more religious terms, he started using terms like "evil doers", he started framing things with religious type ideology and the way that the sentences were phrased. And then the country itself became more religious. And that's when I saw, I feel, the weaker side of humanity that scares me.

Julia Sweeney is an actor and comedian. . . read more

Why the ACT Government has only in the last year or so decided it was cute to try and use SMS language on anti-DWT (Driving While Texting) awareness signs like the "DRIVE N TXT U B NEXT" is beyond me ... they missed the boat by about 10 years and is embarrassing.

I wonder how many people still use SMS language and shortcuts given that technology nowadays means its no longer necessary. From what I've observed people in general want their messages to be well-formed, correctly spelt and appropriately punctuated and formatted - and that applies to phone SMSs and other short messages such as those posted on Twitter.

What are your thoughts on SMS language? Is it dead? Is it cute? Does it have its place still? Was it a temporary travesty of the English language? . . read more

[via Rolling Stone]  . . read more

"Today we are witnessing an almost uncontained hyper use of force - military force - in international relations, force that is plunging the world into an abyss of permanent conflicts,'' said Putin, president then and prime minister today of the nation that survives of the former power which once stood, with the U.S., as the two greatest mutual threats to one another's security. "As a result we do not have sufficient strength to find a comprehensive solution to any one of these conflicts. Finding a political settlement also becomes impossible.

"We are seeing a greater and greater disdain for the basic principles of international law,'' Putin said at the Munich Security Conference in February 2007. "And independent legal norms are, as a matter of fact, coming increasingly closer to one state's legal system. One state and, of course, first and foremost the United States, has overstepped its national borders in every way. This is visible in the economic, political, cultural and educational policies it imposes on other nations. Well, who likes this? Who is happy about this? ''

This weekend, addressing the Munich Security Conference, Vice President Joe Biden declared that it is "time to press the reset button'' in U.S.-Soviet relations.

"The United States rejects the notion that NATO's gain is Russia's loss, or that Russia's strength is NATO's weakness,'' Biden said Saturday, in an address vowing that the Obama administration will "set a new tone... in America's relations around the world... The last few years have seen a dangerous drift in relations between Russia and the members of our Alliance,'' Biden told the conference. "It is time -- to paraphrase President Obama -- it's time to press the reset button and to revisit the many areas where we can and should be working together with Russia.''

At the same time, noting that the U.S. and Russia will not agree on everything, Biden issued a strong affirmation of the Bush administration's push for a missile defense system in eastern Europe - missiles basesd in Poland and radar in the Czech Republic - aimed at guarding against the potential "rogue'' threats of a power such as Iran.

"Our alliance must be better equipped to help stop the spread of the world's most dangerous weapons, to tackle terrorism and cyber-security, to expand the writ of energy security, and to act in and out of area more effectively,'' Biden said. "We will continue to develop missile defense to counter the growing Iranian capability, provided the technology is proven and it is cost-effective. We'll do so in consultation with you, our NATO allies, and with Russia.''

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I don't keep the opinion, mind you. I just exercise what it would be like to believe that Sarah Palin was actually qualified to be Vice President, that the Republican party gives a shit about poor working class people, that Obama was a secret Muslim, that somehow being a Muslim disqualifies you from being a human, or even a President, that white American people are superior to everyone else on the planet, and that those fucking Mexicans want my job.

And then I realize that it's time wasted; that there are probably not enough people truly of that persuasion who would be capable or willing to do that kind of introspection.

They could never entertain the idea that maybe they're wrong, or even experimentally believing that possibly they've been terribly lied to. That they're horribly scared and unable to express it for fear of seeming weak in the world's eyes. That maybe, just maybe, Obama would simply do a better job if they gave him a chance. That Mexicans have rights too, that English is spoken better in other countries and by non-native speakers, that speaking English doesn't make one superior. That we've been awfully gluttonous and irresponsible as a society for far too long.  . . read more

"I disagree with all these experts. Somebody has to stand up to these experts."

"They are the experts, but science doesn't operate on consensus."

"Genetics is the foundation for modern biology, not evolution...Genetics goes back to a Christian monk who did precise data."

--Don McLeroy, Chair of the Texas State Board of Education, March 27, 2009

The debate on the teaching of evolution and Texas continues to evolve, mutate and creatively adapt though news sources, ranging from the Dallas Morning News to the Discovery Institute, are declaring premature and decisive victories. It depends on whose version of events one would like to believe. As they say, "perception shapes reality." The truth of the matter is that the story of the Texas State Board of Education (SBOE) is a sordid, implicit, complicated one and isn't anywhere close to resolution. The continuing struggle is not about science or even scientific process. Or even about fifteen elected adults in agreement that their sole purpose in public service is to ensure that students in public schools are learning concepts in line with international scientific standards. (Seven of the members are ideologues; six are equivocating ideologues; and two, Berlanga and Nuñez, are clear, concise voices of reason who have the humility--and audacity--to defer to the experts.)

If the issue is not one of sound science, what is it then? It is a fierce battle over language and the concepts language can potentially carry into the classroom.

What has been decided in a final vote by the SBOE on March 27 is a document of words that will guide science curriculum standards for a decade. The final draft is a convoluted, compromised collection of doublespeak. As SBOE chair Don McLeroy publicly declared as a defense for why experts are not needed: "There is stasis in the fossil record." Perhaps it is more accurate to say that there is stasis in the document, and that is a very sad milestone for Texas and beyond.

A larger issue is one of language and concepts, as guided by the document in question, making their way into textbooks. What is at stake could likely affect other states: Texas has economic clout as a buyer of textbooks which gives the SBOE the power to meddle in pre-publication matters in ways that publishers are willing to accommodate. SBOE's range of power in mitigating language is directly based on the curriculum standards. Other states that do not have leverage in volume sales or a similar structure in adopting textbooks stand a good chance of being disadvantaged by decisions made in Texas.

One outstanding example of how this could play out for other states is in the wording of an amendment--now a standard--that requires students to "analyze and evaluate scientific explanations concerning any data on sudden appearance and stasis and the sequential groups in the fossil record." According to Dan Quinn of the Texas Freedom Network, "McLeroy had argued that such data disproves the concept of common descent and will demand that publishers say as much in new textbooks [that] are adopted in 2011."

Most news reports are accurate on one point. It is true that the SBOE discarded the two decades-old language of teaching the "strengths and weaknesses" of evolution theory. That decision came early in the proceedings; it was a compelling ruse for the string of compromised amendments that would follow. Amendments, now standards, that have groups like the Environmental Defense Fund issuing statements hours after the final vote. That is all to assume that the superorganism by the name of the Texas SBOE is capable of arriving at sound conclusions based on consensus as informed by the best and brightest minds that the scientific and activist community has to offer. In its current configuration, it is not.

Laray Polk is a multimedia artist and writer who lives in Dallas, Texas. She can be reached at laraypolk@me.com. This article was originaly published at Counterpunch